Chakwera concedes whole Malawi govt system is corrupt: Delegates Chilima to deal with mafia-like criminal enterprise, restructure civil service
President Lazarus Chakwera on Sunday conceded the public perception that Malawi government is like a crime scene of the mafia-like criminal enterprise, saying public sector reform is what the country needs and delegated the country’s second-in-command Saulos Chilima up a turbo-charged reforms to clean the system.
Chakwera said this on Sunday during his weekly briefing monitored on Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) television as Malawians are now keeping leaders on their toes to account for the K6.2 billion for the Covid-19 national response plan which is reported to have been misappropriated.
In his address, Chakwera said the rot in the government system goes deeper than Covid-19 funds.
“If we are going to root out the problem of waste, abuse, and theft of public resources, we must admit that these are behaviours that have poisoned our values as a nation and have corroded our entire government system,” said Chakwera.
The President said In fact over the past 27 years, the government system has been “rigged” with bad or old laws, procedures, policies, and contracts that are cleverly designed to not only facilitate waste, abuse, and theft, but to also protect those who engage in these acts from being fired or prosecuted.
“The three government systems through which this behaviour is perpetuated are the system of allowances, the system of procurement, and the system of civil servant’s employment contracts.
“These three systems are used by system insiders to loot with impunity,” said Chakwera.
Chakwera reminded the nation that he spoke about the looting scheme in the government system in his radio address of July 25th, 2020, less than a month after he took office.
“My exact words on that occasion were that based on last year’s report from the Auditor General, ‘there is no Government Ministry, Department, or Agency where the culture of impunity for wastage, misappropriation, and theft is not entrenched. And so we cannot afford to deal with corruption selectively by focusing on the tip of the iceberg. It is the whole system that is corrupt and therefore it is the whole system we must clean up.’
“To clean up the system as a whole, we must conduct a comprehensive review and overhaul of the three government systems of allowances, of procurement, and of employment contracts,” said Chakwera.
He said that is the public sector reform that Malawi needs “most urgently”.
The President therefore announced that he has delegated Vice-President, Chilima, in his capacity as Minister of Public Sector Reforms, together with a special Taskforce he will form in consultation with the Head of State, to begin and prioritize a review of these three government systems and submit recommendations for their overhaul to his office within three months.
“The recommendations must include any legislative changes we must make in our laws at one of the sittings of Parliament this year so that our laws protect the interests and resources of the public, not the rubble of public servants who use broken systems to loot and use bad laws and contracts to keep their jobs in the system and keep looting.
“The recommendations must also include a restructuring of the civil service to be more efficient and of civil servants’ conditions of service so that the good people in the system are well supported and not able to use poor pay as an excuse for wasting, abusing, and stealing public resources,” said the President.
Chakwera predicted that the “systemic review and overhaul” will be resisted by so many who are benefiting from the looting, including greedy politicians from all political parties, greedy businesses from the private sector, and greedy civil servants they partner with inside the machinery.
“But it is a battle they will not win,” warned Chakwera, adding “ they will not win because you, the Malawian people, put me here to bring this kind of radical change, and whether anyone likes it or not, change has come.”
Commentators say Chakwera spoke tough on Sunday, but that Malawians want less of flowery language and empty promises, they expect their leader to have few words and more action.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
Laz is correct and on point. After looking at the breakdown of sitting allowances from Covid Funds for Nankhumwa circulating on line, the whole system needs a complete overhaul_otherwise it is four steps forward and then five steps backward! Jesus!
FEDERALISM. Enough is enough.
“The North Remembers”
Chilima himself is a rubble to be cleared!
Wina watcheredwa apa lo!
No action Mr President nothing u will achieve on this let’s wait and see
Chilima chenjera uwu ndi msampha
Action Mr. President! Action!
The only way to deal with corruption is to kill it shoot everyone who is corrupt bring them to Bingu stadium and shoot them in front of the whole national televised on national TVs and aired on every radio station then everyone will be afraid to be corrupt
SKC Chilima, do not be a mug, and accept assignments from Chakwera which are intended to destroy your reputation. Chakwera is smart he associates you with trying to eradicate corruption or to reform sectors, when he knows full well that you will fail. Carry on like this and come 2025 Chakwera will claim that he assigned the fight against corruption to you and you failed. Grow up this is elementary politics. Politics of the infant school.
If you say Chilima should not do his job for whatever reason, then he should resign and let someone else willing to do the job take his place.
Chakwera is failing. Read the blog properly. Chakwera does not want to stop corruption or the looting of public funds.
Kkkkkk
Chilima, a Malawi version of Julius Malema
Chilima a Malawian version of a political who see no way to power as he is busy being set up for blame.
Chilima is already the minister responsible for public reforms. A few months ago he was busy conducting meetings. What was he doing really? Can he be trusted with this one now? It appears the government does not know what to do
Civili servant kuba and katangale nkosayamba. The biggest thieves are controlling officers, directors, accountants, and chain supply officers. The rest of the civil servants amalizidwa with these guys. The money meant for other officers to work effectively is stolen. Go to ministry of labour for example. There are no vehicles for inspectors. You will not see an inspector going around companies to check conditions of employment like wages, overtime, working hours, and health and safety. Another department where money just varnishes is the department of forestly? Look how the forests have disappeared. Why? The bosses take all the money and make foreign trips for dollars. They exchange fuel allocated in cards for cash aka kusungunula. The supply chain is another weakest area where our taxes just vanishes. In the end teachers, nurses etc who are stationed in their workplaces suffer. Their profession has no field work. A Chakwera ntchito yochotsa zovunda kukataya ku ntaya muli nayo. DPP yakusiyirani mavuto. Pano mukusungabe Helen Buluma, Ben Botolo, Gertrude Hiwa (Namboya), etc. Akupwetekani amenewa.
True
So it has taken you Chakwera 8 months that you have been President of Malawi to find out that the entire government system is corrupt. And yet when you were campaigning to be President, you told Malawians that you would wipe out corruption on day one. What you are attempting to do is to fool Malawians by your idiotic Talk Talk lies. You are the master mind of the corruption which is rampant amongst your minsters and the system as a whole. You are as corrupt and incompetent. Bad. Bad. Bad.
When he said day one, it was not literal. How can one even believe that corruption would be wiped out on day one?👀👀👀🤷🏽♀️
Are we not supposed to believe the word of a man of God. After all Chakwera is a Reverend. But my friend even after 5 years in power Chakwera will not have created a million jobs. Chakwera lied
The issue of corruption is simple. Just raise salaries for all civil servants close to what parastatals and NGOs offer, then abolish allowances. Most corruption
happens ku ma oversight institutions makamakaa ku audit, accountant General, RBM, Procurement, Finance, ACB, Police, Army, immigration etc etc. Komabe baby chilima wachepa nayo ntchito because he too is corrupt.
It seems these gentlemen are overwhelmed with the task at hand. Running government is serious business, Bakili observed,…the hard way 😬
Even APM made the same sentiments on World Anticorruption Day, if you remember. Paul Mphwiyo once said the whole Government is a criminal enterprise….. Nde zalakwika because wanena ndi Chakwera?
His Excellency the pastor is sounding like a broken record.He has spokenna lot and said nothing.
Fellow Malawians,
No one can eradicate corruption but reduce it. Corruption is like the dust you see in your house , you can not say that i have a machine to eradicate dust in houses .
Even in the bible corruption was there , check Zakeyu the tax Collector
My dear Malawians to reduce corruption in government firstly everyone in Capital hill must under go integrate test . People will fear .
Secondly the government must eradicate poverty , poverty and corruption are friends.
Employ more youth .White people they don’t talk much on corruption because the government provide important items and incentives to its people.
Ask yourself Mr President why this still happening
If the president push for eradication on corruption he will end crying every day .
I only wonder, Mr Chakwera, you talked about this looting system in government already more then half a year ago and nothing is changed! I wonder, there are shady top government CEOs , the Magalasis, the Itayes…. and many more, none of them up to now got convicted!
I wonder , your VP Mr Chilima as head of public sector reforms and advocate for speed and timely solutions, runs up and down the country with no significant changes in public offices! I wonder….
I really wonder and ask myself: Do you want a change or do you only want to talk about it? Do you go for a selfless servant leadership style and walk the talk to clear the mess we are in or do you enjoy your speech and all the benefits which comes with your office?
I still hope we’ll see answers through you actions!
You are forgetting some private Organizations like MASFU here in Lilongwe. Many people lie that they are going for a meeting at the lake and yet they hide in their respective homes like Area 47, 12 and have built mansions out of allowance money.
This issue munakaitenga nokha a president…no need for delegating SKC
Exactly Chilima alibe mphamvu zosankha ma ministers
Ndikumene kuli vuto
What type of leadership is that? Then later the very same people will be saying he did not let the VP do his job?
Chakwera is a dunderhead, u heard it here first
Nothing new thus said Mr Talk Talk, you already assigned SK for the tasks mentioned , do the right thing Sir. We need action now…and save the country …
Boot these mwenye out. They are robbing the country
First I don’t agree that Malawi Government system is corrupt as a whole- what is the basis of such information- otherwise government business would halt-which percentage is corrupt. Basing on the said audit report made public, the only misappropriation was 2 bn not 1.3 trillion. Even for those 2 bn. it was for uncompleted construction which they spent some monies.
Second restrructuring of civil service must be done by a person who knows civil service in and out, not just restructuring for the sake of restructuring.
Third governance bodies needs to be motivated to work and to monitor the government system like in Malawi National Audit Office, Central Internal Audit, ACB complain of poor funding. See how these bodies are funded in Tanzania, SA, Zambia etc then you will see that we are far from having good corporate governance. All these are independent in their own countries but not Malawi
Silly
Mr. Chakwera first fire all your relationships around state house. Secondly take note that public / civil service reforms are not led by political leaders but management consultants. Please consults experts on how restructuring is done osati izo zomangolemberedwa ma speech osadziwa what ku means. Chilima travelled around the country meeting with heads of departments and signed up performance agreements. Lero zili pati?So this directive is useless Mr. Chakwera. Mungofuna kugula nthawi kuti anthu aziti boma likuchita kanthu .Inu mwalephera bambo kulamulira dziko . Munalowa mboma musakudziwa kuti boma limayenda bwanji
what we need is action and not alerting those who are doing corruption.
How is it hard anthu inu to stop these people from stealing?The man himself has employed all his family members to benefit from azipongozi, ana ake, etc..Government employees starts work anytime they feel like and knock off anytime. Some samapita kuntchito at all but gets paid. Unnecessary field just to get ma allowances. Chilima should have been head of state he has what Bingu had leardership skills
Chakwera kutemwa kudimbika wuli, so saulos nimunthu wakuti kumlekela poto wanyama? Apa mwadimbika sibweni
Apa mayala athina kapena tinene kuti ngombe zayangana ku dazibomu.Nkhani ya ma allowance yapangitsa kuti ogwira nchito mboma akhale a kamberembere.Anthu amewa amanama za ma semina chifukwa chofuna ndalama . Koma inu akulu akulu monga ma phungu akunyumba ya malamulo muli ndi vuto lalikulu kukonda kudzikundikira malipiro.Tsono mmene aliri ma salary aboma mmati ana atani?Amalawi vuto sitikonda dziko lathu tikalemedwa nchito mtima umakhala pa ndalama ndi mapoloti kuti adzti ndinu ochitabwino.Chnde musayiwale kuti ploti ya kumanda amagawa monga msinkhuwako ndipo sitimatenga kanthu kali konse.Lapani muyambenso moyo wina .Even now what so ever you ask God He will give unto thee.
All the tasks assigned to zeze, up to now what has he achieved? Parastatal reforms, he pocketed allowances for his useless meetings but nothing achieved, zeze was also tasked with health service reform show me his achievements,. Why trust a marketer to do this when he has nothing to show for all his efforts?
If you look at the number of vehicle or cars that ply the streets of the cities during working hours, you would agree with me that none of our fellow citizens are in the offices working, BUT are out attending to their personal businesses….let us change the mindset please…
You firstly need to clean your surroundings. We need action not promises and institutions to clean coz they hands are very dirty and part and parcel of all that is happening in the country.
Even if the officers who abused the funds are known or arrested. How long will it take for their cases to be concluded by the courts. Look at the cash gate cases. Another rubble at the Justice ministry!
The president should learn from Bingu Wa Mutharika during his first term on how he tackled corruption, he did not waste time making pronouncements and declarations, he just started acting and the results could really speak for himself, Mr president must have the will to root out any form of criminality in the government structures, Corruption will not be defeated by eloquency in speaking, Our president should grow some balls and confront these criminals by book or crook osati izi zomangoti we have let appropriate institutions deal with the matter, some of these issues need a strong directive approach unlike giving these criminal priviledge and time to cover up their evil deeds!
Talk talk talk. I will believe when I see action
True
Anything happens and ge says yes ive told chilima to sort it out.
The systems mentioned are rotten to the core. Let the east wind the wind if deliverance sweep across our nation and clean the rubble IJN.
H.E speech was inspiring hope and once done, we will be so much happy as a nation
Tired of speeches buddy
U set the bar too low. With citizens and the electorate like you, this country is going knowhere. This is how we elect retarded leaders
I thought Chilima concluded his reforms exercise by coming up with 300 pieces of legislation that needed to be changed in parliament? Did he leave anything out in these three areas in question, and if so, how reliable was his concluded report?
Inenso kudabwa. Akuti tizidya ma reform.
We keep going in reverse gear! Everybody who cares to observe knows we are rottem to the mantle what is needed is a clearway forward
Signs of failed leadership, avoid talking everything to the public, just do it, let malawians see your actions and less talking. Please do not always delegates Chilima in public. Just say I am going to do this or that. You are the leader not Chilima. You think malawians will shift the blame on Chilima just because you delegated him? Otherwise if you feel you have failed, give leadership to Chilima. Really a fallen man of God. Umaona ngati upresident ndi masewela. Wamukumbuka Peter Muthalika
Hon. Chilima is the minister responsible for public sector reform. The real issue here is how an WHEN changes are brought in. Parliament is just as greedy, this allowance culture will be hard to stop if the PRESIDENT does not take the decision to stop allowances entirely. He can suspend allowances now.
Just fire half the civil service. Up the salaries and have work ethics similar to the private sector
Allowances and wasteful benefits are entrenched in the private sector too! It’s not just the civil service that has corrupt systems.
The difference is that the private sector spends what it makes while govt. uses our taxes (my earned money).
Chakwera still does not get the point. Firstly, he himself is the biggest beneficiary of the same system of judicial incompetence and selective justice. Secondly, the Tonse Alliance is full of greedy pricks, people tainted with Cashgate corruption and they are his henchmen. Thirdly, leadership failure from the top is what is to blame for this whole mess. Fourthly, he himself Chakwera must practice what he preaches by firing his relatives and church elders in government. All these smokes and mirrors, cosmetic reforms and fake shake-ups will only serve to entrench Chewalisation, MCP-ism, and nepotism. The right thing for him to do is to concede that he is sleeping on the job.
People with integrity around the president are missing. So he will talk and talk (good speech writer!) but halting spending on VXs, huge allowances, etc will take real guts. This President has guts, but I look around the cabinet table and I cannot see enough people who can bring the change we need.
Why doesn’t Chakwera borrow a leaf from Magufuli? Of course, he should ignore the bad part of Magufuli but he should be ruthless on corruption unless if he is swimming in the same waters. In China, people face the death penalty for corruption. Lengthy jail terms should be imposed. C’mon Rev, don’t betray the trust of the people from the villages. You guys should have mercy for the folks in the villages and stop stealing from government.
Dema talk talk…….we need action.
So, this punk is busy fire fighting now when he made so much noise about clearing the rubble during campaign? Hey, dude is sleeping on the job, sadzikwanisa izi
A fish rots from the head
The fish was already rotten before this head arrived. But he needs to acto quick because the covid loot is just a sign of a real big problem.
People from OPC, auditor General and accountant General are the biggest culprits of allowance theft. They claim allowances from their office as well as any department or agency that they are visiting. Double allowance claim and they will usually claim for more days than they would spend. I know of agencies and departments that will spend 99% of their funding on allowances and have nothing
This is well known and well chronicled and all regimes including the current one have failed to tackle this ill
Kkkkk mukwantere! Mwatisandutsa zotokosela mmano.
When did we start hearing about reforms? How much money have you and chalima been spendig on these so called public reforms?
So it means that kale lose lija, ti ma meeting tose chalima amachita masiku osewa tinali tongotaitsa nthawi?
Do you realy know the meaning of this reform job?
Akulu akulu ziotsetsa simutithandiza
Black people knows nothing we are corrupt
Sorry Mr. President you have engaged a wrong person to restructure the Civil Service. In the first place Chilima is a politician and has never been a civil servant to understand the system. Please avoid messing up the civil service – you are taking a dangerous path.The idea is good, but the approach is wrong.
The same fools who were blaming Dpp. Some Malawians are born thieves in their mothers woumb. Malawi will remain poor until Jesus comes..
thats forever or until some cosmic cataclysmic event
Act b4 it’s too late
I already said that when we said that Dpp is corrupt we maint these dpp boys in government , lets change our laws so that who stole government funds should be prosecuted fast, and all property obtained from stollen money should be ceased